Spain To Ban Under 16s From Social Media
The Spanish government has announced this week plans to prohibit access to social media platforms for under-16s as part of a broader crackdown on tech giants over systemic failures to protect users from harm.
Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, decried the misconduct of social media platforms saying that ” social media has become a failed state.”
“They are a place where laws are ignored, and crime is endured, where disinformation is worth more than truth, and half of users suffer hate speech,” Sanchez said. “A failed state in which algorithms distort the public conversation and our data and image are defied and sold.”
He explained that to enforce a ban for under-16s, “platforms will be required to implement effective age-verification systems — not just checkboxes, but real barriers that work.”
Sanchez added: “Today, our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone: a space of addiction, abuse, pornography, manipulation, and violence. We will no longer accept that. We will protect them from the digital wild west.”
Spain is the first European country to officially introduce a ban after Australia’s Online Safety Amendment Act came into effect in 2025 which required platforms such as Meta’s Instagram, ByteDance’s TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube, Elon Musk’s X, and Reddit to implement age-verification measures or face a fine of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($32 million) for non-compliance.
Spain has yet to define which firms are affected by its new rules, but Sanchez criticized major platforms, including TikTok, for allowing accounts to share “AI-generated child abuse materials,” Elon Musk’s X for enabling its AI chatbot Grok to “generate illegal sexual content,” and Instagram for “spying on millions of Android users,” amongst other misdoings.
Spain’s four other measures focus on legal accountability for executives who fail to remove unregulated or hateful content and turning “algorithmic manipulation and the amplification of illegal content” into a new criminal offence.
Spain’s new announcement sets a precedent that more countries will follow with Greece close to announcing a similar ban for children under 15.
Elon Musk wrote on X in response : “Dirty Sánchez is a tyrant and a traitor to the people of Spain,” and a “true fascist totalitarian.”
Front image credit: pixelkult